Firefox saves your personal information such as bookmarks, passwords, and user preferences in a set of files called your profile, which is stored in a separate location from the Firefox program files. You can have multiple Firefox profiles, each containing a separate set of user information. The Profile Manager allows you to create, remove, rename, and switch profiles.

If you are troubleshooting a problem with Firefox: The Refresh Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its default state while saving your essential information. Consider using it before going through a lengthy troubleshooting process.

Starting the Profile Manager

Manage profiles when Firefox is open

Type about:profiles into the address bar and press the EnterReturn key. This will open the About Profiles page.

The following options are available:

Create a new profile: Click Create a New Profile and follow the prompts in the Create Profile Wizard (see the Creating a profile section below for details). After you finish creating the new profile, it will be listed in the Profile Manager. Click Set as default profile underneath that profile, if you want Firefox to use your new profile the next time you start Firefox.

To manage profiles, find the profile you want to change and choose from these buttons underneath that profile:

Rename: Click this to change the name of a profile in the Profile Manager. Note: The folder containing the files for the profile is not renamed.

Remove: Click this to delete a profile. (The profile in use cannot be deleted.) Don't Delete Files is the preferred option. See the Removing a profile section below for more information.

Set as default profile: This option allows you to switch profiles. Click this to make Firefox use this profile at startup.

Launch profile in new browser:This option is not used to manage profiles. It's intended for advanced users who have launched Firefox with a special startup command.When you click this button, another Firefox window will open using that profile.When you click this button, another Firefox window will open using that profile.

Note: Another way to start the Profile Manager is from the Search box in the Windows Start menu. Close Firefox (if open), press , type firefox.exe -P and press enter.

If the above instructions do not work or if you have multiple installations of Firefox, use the following instructions instead.

Multiple Firefox installations

You can have multiple Firefox programs installed in different locations. To start the Profile Manager for a specific Firefox installation, replace firefox.exe in the above instructions with the full path to the Firefox program, enclose that line in quotes, then add a space followed by -P.

Note: You may need to adjust these instructions if Firefox is installed in a non-default location (for example, when multiple installations exist).

If Firefox is already included in your Linux distribution or if you have installed Firefox with the package manager of your Linux distribution:

If Firefox is open, close Firefox:

Click the menu button
and then click ExitQuit
.

Click the Firefox menu
, then click Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen, then click Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu
, then click Quit.

In Terminal run:firefox -P

The P is capitalized. Alternatively, you can use -ProfileManager instead of -P.
The Firefox Profile Manager (Choose User Profile) window should open.

If the Profile Manager window still does not open, Firefox may have been running in the background, even though it was not visible. Close all instances of Firefox or restart the computer and then try again.

Creating a profile

After starting the Profile Manager as explained above, you can create a new, additional profile as follows:

In the Profile Manager, click Create Profile... to start the Create Profile Wizard.

Click Next and enter the name of the profile. Use a profile name that is descriptive, such as your personal name. This name is not exposed on the Internet.

Disregard the Choose Folder prompt unless you wish to choose where to store the profile on your computer.

Warning: If you choose your own folder location for the profile, select a new or empty folder. If you choose a folder that isn't empty and you later remove the profile and choose the "Delete Files" option, everything inside that folder will be deleted.

To create the new profile, click FinishDone.

You will be taken back to the Profile Manager and the new profile will be listed.
When you first start Firefox with the new profile, you will be prompted to sign in to your Firefox Account so that you can sync your data with the new profile (see below).

Removing a profile

After starting the Profile Manager as explained above, you can remove an existing profile as follows:

In the Profile Manager, select the profile to remove, and click Delete Profile....

Confirm that you wish to delete the profile:

Don't Delete Files removes the profile from the Profile Manager yet retains the profile data files on your computer in the storage folder, so that your information is not lost. "Don't Delete Files" is the preferred option because it saves the old profile's folder and allows you to recover the files to a new profile.

Delete Files removes the profile and its files (including the profile bookmarks, settings, passwords, etc.). If you use the "Delete Files" option, the profile folder and files will be deleted. This action cannot be undone.

Cancel interrupts the profile deletion.

Renaming a profile

After starting the Profile Manager as explained above, you can rename a profile as follows:

In the Profile Manager, select the profile to rename, and then click Rename Profile....

Enter the new name for the profile. Type in the new profile name, and click on OK.

Options

Work Offline

Choosing this option loads the selected profile and starts Firefox without connecting to the Internet. You can view previously viewed web pages and experiment with your profile.

Use the selected profile without asking at startup

When you have multiple profiles, this option tells Firefox what to do at startup:

If you check this option, Firefox will automatically load the selected profile at startup. To access other profiles, you must start the Profile Manager first.

If you uncheck this option, Firefox will show you the Profile Manager each time you start Firefox, so that you can select a profile to use.

Use Sync with a new profile

When you first open Firefox with a new profile, you will be prompted to sign in to Sync, which allows different Firefox profiles to share the same bookmarks, browsing history, passwords and other user data.

If you already use Sync in another profile or device, enter the email address and password for your Firefox Account and your new profile will use those settings.

If you don't use Sync or if you don't want to sync your data with the new profile, you can skip this step.

Moving a profile

To copy all of your Firefox data and settings to another Firefox installation (e.g. when you get a new computer), you can make a backup of your Firefox profile, then restore it in your new location. For instructions, see Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.